The present invention relates to data storage, and more specifically, this invention relates to managing data storage across a connected data storage system.
Traditional computer file systems store information in a database using a tree structure. These traditional systems have been successful for small collections of data such as those on a local hard drive, but were not designed, and therefore not able, to handle larger amounts of data. Thus, as businesses continue to collect, store, access, transfer, etc. larger and larger volumes of unstructured content, traditional computer file systems are unable to meet business' needs.
A storage area network (SAN) is a network which provides access to consolidated, block level data storage. SANs are primarily used to enhance storage devices such as disk arrays and tape libraries by making them accessible to servers so that the devices appear to the operating system as locally attached devices. Accordingly, storage devices having differing levels of processing power may collectively be used to manage the data included in a data storage system. Moreover, SANs may be implemented over a wide area network (WAN) that covers a broad geographical area. Physical data storage infrastructure included in a SAN may even be integrated with a cloud-based network. Thus, access between storage devices may be facilitated regardless of their proximity to each other.
Object storage provides an advanced technique of storing information, where information is stored as objects. Each object contains the data itself (e.g., the bits and bytes), in addition to metadata that may include user and/or system defined tags. The metadata may describe the content of the data; how the corresponding object is related to other objects; how the data should be handled, replicated, or backed up; etc.
Although data processing devices having differing levels of processing power may be used collectively, existing data storage systems are unable to efficiently utilize the varied throughputs to perform data processing.